The Thirty-Fifth Republic - Covid - the gift that keeps on giving even during the Christmas Break

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You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Do not give the staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

Why doesn't DfE just ditch exams??

Because it would create work for them.

@Piggyinblankets

What's his last name? Is he the guy that ran as Lib Dem? i find that hard to believe!

Why doesn't DfE just ditch exams?? So many of their crackpot plans are born out of a desire to keep forging on with increasingly unfeasible exam plans.

Yes its Nawaz. He is currently arguing with a Tory mayoral candidate. I am agreeing with a tory. Wow

I wonder what us4them would do if their child is identified by the school as a close contact of a positive case?

1. Consent to LF testing at school by Kev’s mum
2. Self isolate for 10 days

??

Us for them are a joke. I agree they don't seem to get very rigorous questioning do they? Wouldn't it be fantastic if they were right, and schools were actually keeping us all safe? They would then want the chance to volunteer to be in school, no point wasting the magic on us teachers.

Another thing to bear in mind is, even if they just go with extra weeks off in Tier 4 - how much more of the country will be in Tier 4(5?) in a couple of days?

I think the answer to that relies on learning lessons from past decisions December. I don’t see much evidence of that happening.

@mumsneedwine complaint sent, not that they'll do anything about it! It's basically slander against schools

This is the stupid thing. If we go back as normal, thousands of schools will be closed in 2 weeks time. Or if not closed, then with big chunks of kids off due to staffing issues. That situation is worse for children nd worse for parents who need the childcare.

I'm just talking about primary. Secondary is going to be chaos.

We share planning in my school - 4 form entry - so I've only got to plan science and whole class reading this term. I'm just going to record all my science lessons for the term before we go back, so they are ready to upload once a week, and do the stuff for my reading too. Some of that is just putting up vocab meaning, a read through of the chapters and so on. Doesn't actually take that long. At least then it's put the way and I can use brain space during term for rage storming around the village in the dark. Only exercise option.

Primary LSA here and social distancing doesn't work - weve tried to an extent with the older years but at least 2 children I work with cant bear to be 2m away from me and will either come up to me or yell my name so loudly I have to go sit next to them. Theres no way social distancing is happening.

Also got a post christmas treat of being told to isolate for 4 days which means I came into contact last tues whilst buying the last of my Christmas food! Of course i can go back to school and be safe but shopping that's the dangerous part (even though i get to wear a mask throughout).

Changed again... god, the gaslighting

Deep breath's everyone. Let's try not to wind ourselves up.

I've been marking year 7 'essays'. Only 6 to go

This is the stupid thing. If we go back as normal, thousands of schools will be closed in 2 weeks time. Or if not closed, then with big chunks of kids off due to staffing issues. That situation is worse for children nd worse for parents who need the childcare.

Completely.

Thus cutting off access to school for KW Parents. Who may be nhs. Who will be needed. Putting some staff into absences of 3+weeks recovery. Or worse.

Locally it got tough if over 400/100k, very much so if over 600 in the general community.

The most vulnerable sen pupils and their families will be shafted in sen. Some of those pupils must be in school. It's manageable with pupil and staff rotas.

We are trying to juggle sorting a load of house stuff out today. And fit in eldest going to park etc. We are failing miserably with a 2 year old who is addicted to mummy. Gah!

1 Consent to LF testing at school by Kev’s mum
2 Self isolate for 10 days

1. Bitch thoroughly about the child or teacher they think is responsible, label them a hypochondriac, and then do as they please for the next 10 days, which may or may not include going to the park, visiting relatives and going shopping.

@TheHoneyBadger you're right. I need to crack on with work.....

Well, that's the precise point. Hull was the worst example (got to rates of 1,300/100,000 for a couple of days but significantly higher than the 400-600 rates elsewhere for a solid number of weeks) and the hospitals nearly collapsed because of childcare issues/school closures. They didn't give two hoots in Westminster.

Oooo it was on 666 so wanted to change the number!

Has anyone told the DF about journalistic sentence lengths!!

On the plus side , it looks like they have chosen to pin the blame on scientists now.

I'm sort of trying not to think about next week at the moment.

We have an inset on Monday, so theoretically then 4 days to test around 1000 students + staff.

It's just not going to happen, is it? So what happens after that?

UfT would have a field day if they found out that the SI period without a test has been increased to 21 days at home. Or that anyone who’s been in the U.K. can’t return to school until they have had a test.

I'm back to not sleeping great. Have been marking mocks and assessments only as we were told we would get an email about what work to provide for January in the second week of the holiday. I'm so fed up that I'll probably leave it until Sunday evening as no doubt the government will change their plans last minute. Lego day today.

Back to blaming us.

Obviously can't decide who they hate more scientists or teachers.

But that's a shift too. It used to be the unions they blamed. Now it's bang on us. As if we all rose up on Christmas Day and rallied the troops.

It was me. I did it. I am responsible for closing the schools. My bad.